Removal of Surface Oxygen Vacancies Increases Conductance Through TiO Thin Films for Perovskite Solar Cells.

We report that UV-ozone treatment of TiO anatase thin films is an efficient method to increase the conductance through the film by more than 2 orders of magnitude. The increase in conductance is quantified via conductive scanning force microscopy on freshly annealed and UV-ozone-treated TiO anatase thin films on fluorine-doped tin oxide substrates. The increased conductance of TiO anatase thin films results in a 2% increase of the average power conversion efficiency (PCE) of methylammonium lead iodide-based perovskite solar cells.

Vibrational Coupling between Organic and Inorganic Sublattices of Hybrid Perovskites.

The interplay of electronic and nuclear degrees of freedom in semiconductor hybrid organic-inorganic perovskites determines many of their fundamental photophysical properties. For instance, charge carriers are dressed with phonons, that is, form polarons, and combination modes composed of strongly mixed localized vibrations and delocalized phonons can provide pathways for electronic energy relaxation and dissipation. Mixing of the different types of nuclear motion in vibrational combination modes requires their strong coupling.

Quantifying Polaron Formation and Charge Carrier Cooling in Lead-Iodide Perovskites.

Notwithstanding the success of lead-halide perovskites in emerging solar energy conversion technologies, many of the fundamental photophysical phenomena in this material remain debated. Here, the initial steps following photogeneration of free charge carriers in lead-iodide perovskites are studied, and timescales of charge carrier cooling and polaron formation, as a function of temperature and charge carrier excess energy, are quantified. It is found, using terahertz time-domain spectroscopy (THz-TDS), that the observed femtosecond rise in the photoconductivity can be described very well using a simple model of sequential charge carrier cooling and polaron formation.

A Conjugated Microporous Polymer for Palladium-Free, Visible Light-Promoted Photocatalytic Stille-Type Coupling Reactions.

The Stille coupling reaction is a versatile method to mainly form aromatic C-C bonds. However, up to now, the use of palladium catalysts is necessary. Here, a palladium-free and photocatalytic Stille-type coupling reaction of aryl iodides and aryl stannanes catalyzing a conjugated microporous polymer-based phototcatalyst under visible light irradiation at room temperature is reported.

Structure-Property Relations of Methylamine Vapor Treated Hybrid Perovskite CHNHPbI Films and Solar Cells.

The power conversion efficiency of halide perovskite solar cells is heavily dependent on the perovskite layer being sufficiently smooth and pinhole-free. It has been shown that these features can be obtained even when starting out from rough and discontinuous perovskite film by briefly exposing the film to methylamine (MA) vapor. The exact underlying physical mechanisms of this phenomenon are, however, still unclear.

Local Time-Dependent Charging in a Perovskite Solar Cell.

Efficient charge extraction within solar cells explicitly depends on the optimization of the internal interfaces. Potential barriers, unbalanced charge extraction, and interfacial trap states can prevent cells from reaching high power conversion efficiencies. In the case of perovskite solar cells, slow processes happening on time scales of seconds cause hysteresis in the current-voltage characteristics.